Re: All Voltage differences are Electrostatic?

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

"If there still a speck of metallic zinc left in the battery, some
charge separation will occur with essentially 9 volts of potential
difference."

not quite drained, i.e. more than a speck.  Here's data from a dozen 9 V.
batts. I found in my haz. mat. sack (I'm a good boy; they go to NPS's Haz. Mat.
dump.).

Open circuit V. (using a HV probe ~ 10^9 ohms)  "tab"  short circuit current
-mA- (~ 0.1 ohm) for a few sec;  sufficient time for auto scale seek to find. -
"CRLF"

1.7    7
4.7    20
6.7    7
7.1    200
7.1    300
7.2    100
7.2    250
7.3    760
7.5    10
7.9    500
7.95    1100
8.0    1100

sl. used batts.

9.0    150
9.4    380

"new"
9.55    5400

inconsistencies likely due to different brands and types.

  Also I've found that new batts. maintain their "freshness" for some time e.g.
> two years.  However, used batts. do not, i.e. in ~1 / 2 year become
"drained", tho originally had an OC V ~ 9 V.



Chuck Britton wrote:

> Drained 9 volt batteries are considerably easier to get for free than
> fresh ones. The HV sparks don't draw much current, just a brief
> discharge of the accumulated charge. (As electrostatic as any other
> spark)
>
> If there still a speck of metallic zinc left in the battery, some
> charge separation will occur with essentially 9 volts of potential
> difference.
>
> At 3:40 PM -0800 2/9/03, Tucker Hiatt wrote:
>
> > Why is it important that the 9-V batteries be drained?  And if one
> > terminal of the series-linked batteries is connected to the knob of
> > the electroscope, to what is the other terminal connected?  Thanks in
> > advance, Tucker
> >
> > Sam Sampere wrote:
> > >   > >To help make this simple connection, chain a bunch of drained 9 V
> > > >   >batteries together in series and connect the terminals to a gold leaf
> > > >   >electroscope.
> > > >   >
> > >   > Sam